Almost four years ago, I helped my father load our station wagon with the basic accoutrements I needed to begin university life: clothes, bedding, and a new laptop. I also packed one more thing: my recently approved Canadian student visa. As a relatively apolitical New Yorker, I assumed going to[Read More…]
Articles by Brahna Siegelberg
The Alchemist translates into pure theatrical gold
Alice Walker A few swindlers promise gullible investors a huge rate of return for modest investments. Sound familiar? Actually, these kinds of schemes were going on long before the 21st century, and Ben Jonson’s 1610 comedy, The Alchemist, is a testament to that. Currently being performed by the McGill Department[Read More…]
Weddings over disasters?
The world has witnessed massive destruction and upheaval over the past few months, but still more apparently captivating to the public imagination is the upcoming wedding of England’s Prince William to his princess-to-be, Kate Middleton. Not only fascinating to British folk who worship the royal family, The Toronto Star[Read More…]
Vancouver band proves that some fans prefer blondes
beyondrobson.com The CBC called them “one of the 10 Canadian bands destined to break in 2010.” Chart called them “the best of the 2010 Canadian Music Week festival.” Now, Yukon Blonde is gracing stages all over Canada on a cross-country tour, and if the Vancouver band’s infectious pop-rock melodies haven’t[Read More…]
Eat, drink, and be merry…unless you’re not
collider.com collider.com After tending to their vegetable garden and sharing a warm cup of tea, Tom and Gerri Happle go home to fill their wine glasses and cook a hearty dinner. Occasionally, they invite friends, or their son Joe, to break bread with them. Through thick and through thin, from[Read More…]
Song and dance for the tortured soul
Alice Walker What do you do when you’re trapped in a Buenos Aires prison? You fantasize about movie stars, of course. That, at least, is how Molina—a gay window-dresser in prison for “corrupting a minor”—has gotten through his darkest hours. When Valentin, a hunky Marxist revolutionary accused of attempting to[Read More…]
The Tempest
Many of the films that will be contending in this year’s Academy Awards were released during the holiday season. For this reason, we bring you a rundown of the best movies from December 2010 that you should be sure to catch in theatres before school starts taking over.
Reviving the undead through song
In this climate of all-things vampire, it is no surprise that Montreal’s Camp Broadway is now performing Dracula: The Musical. Based on Dracula, the Bram Stoker novel, the musical attempts to stay true to the classic Victorian tale—but this time, the story is propelled by dramatic musical numbers. With music[Read More…]
Katy Perry : Teenage Dream
For an album that was touted as the cementing of Katy Perry’s abilities as a credible singer/songwriter, Teenage Dream sure missed the mark. It’s bubblegum pop at its most extreme (read: cotton candy-scented liner notes!), and most of the lyrics are about as trite and non-poetic as those on a[Read More…]
Don’t cheat on the queen
Sophie Silkes As a broke college student, attending an opera can be jarring and strange: spectators are dressed to the nines, songs are sung in languages most of us don’t understand, actors are wearing over-the-top costumes, and melodramatic stories are being unfurled before us. But if you suspend your cynicism,[Read More…]
We get it: life is meaningless
Anybody who’s seen Annie Hall, Manhattan, or Sleeper knows that when it comes to comedy, Woody Allen is a genius. His scripts, his unique brand of neuroticism, and the depth of the themes he explores make him one of the most important filmmakers of our time. But in the[Read More…]
In Concert: Halloween – The Besnard Lakes
Along with Wintersleep and Rah Rah, the Besnard Lakes performed at Cabaret Mile-End on Saturday night as part of a rocking Halloween concert. The Montreal-based indie band, which is composed of husband-and-wife team Jace Lasek and Olga Goreas, drummer Kevin Laing and guitarist Richard White, entranced the audience with[Read More…]
Why I’m Not Quitting Mad Men
The fourth season of Mad Men ended last week, and at last we have seen Don Draper in a moment of weakness: smiling stupidly at the thought of being in love. Spoiler alert: it has been subtly foreshadowed throughout the season, but I don’t think any of us actually expected[Read More…]
Discipline and punish
Last summer, while casually lounging with my friends on a bench in Washington Square Park after a night of partying in New York’s East Village, I came face to face with three policemen hovering over us. “What are you doing here?” one of them said. “We are just sitting,” I[Read More…]
Beauty and its discontents
Adam Scotti “I like what I got, and I’m gonna protect that. Wouldn’t you?” After Steph finds out that her boyfriend Greg has just called her face “regular,” she delivers the play’s first monologue, in which she explains why, though still clearly in love with Greg, she had to go[Read More…]
Look at What the Light Did Now
blogs.sltrib.com Listening to the sounds of indie darling Feist is always a treat, but Look at What the Light Did Now, a documentary portraying the artist’s journey as she recorded her Grammy-nominated album The Reminder, turned the audible into a visual treat as well. This year, Pop gave Montrealers the[Read More…]
Katie Moore
borealisrecords.com Katie Moore is a Montreal-based songstress who needs nothing more than a guitar and her hauntingly beautiful voice to entrance an audience. And at Le Cagibi on Friday night, that’s exactly what she did. As she performed some tunes from her 2007 solo album Only Thing Worse, including “It’s[Read More…]
Mahala Rai Banda
You didn’t have to be familiar with Mahala Rai Banda—a Romanian Gypsy band—to have found yourself dancing your head off at Cabaret Mile-End last Wednesday night. Literally meaning “noble band from the ghetto,” Mahala Rai Banda has managed to turn traditional gypsy music into a frenetic, multi-genre, club-hopping synergy that[Read More…]
Finding sanctuary in the written word
Jane Urquhart was born a writer, but she never envisioned that she would one day be considered among the ranks of the most widely read and respected Canadian authors. With the recent publication of her seventh novel, Sanctuary Line, Urquhart has been nominated for the prestigious Giller Prize: an award[Read More…]
Summer Entertainment Report Cards: Movies – Scott Pilgrims Vs. The World
This is one of those movies throughout which you chuckle a bunch of times, have a few hearty glances at the person sitting next to you, and basically enjoy thoroughly. But I won’t give it much more than that. It’s a Toronto-based hipster extravaganza about girls who dye their hair, listen to cool bands, and have vegan ex-boyfriends, and guys who barely straddle the line between endearingly awkward and terribly inept.
Summer Entertainment Report Cards: TV Shows – True Blood
Picking up immediately from the intriguing cliff-hanger of season two, season three begins with Sookie Stackhouse enlisting the help of the (very sexy) vampire Eric in order to look for Bill, who has just been abducted by a mysterious source. As the season unfolds, it turns out that it is Russell Edgington-the vampire king of Mississippi- who, along with a brigade of werewolves, has taken Bill as a prisoner.
The good, the bad, and the ugly pig noses
How can a good person come to a good end in a world that is, in essence, not good? This is the central question of Bertolt Brecht’s The Good Person of Sichuan, staged by this year’s McGill Theatre Lab – a full-year production class in which students work on a collaborative project that eventually culminates in a spring performance.
JOKE ISSUE: Grillz come to McGill
The McGill administration has announced that McGrills – grills shaped like the word McGill – will be available at the McGill Bookstore, effective immediately. In an interview with the Tribune, Vice-Principle (University Services) Jim Nicell was excited by the grills, which he hopes will boost student pride.
THIRD MAN IN: Sportsophobia
Sports are boring. Let’s talk about baseball – I don’t care if it is “America’s pastime,” but when a game only becomes exciting after two and a half hours and consists of waiting to find out whether a player will hit the ball – or if it’s really heated, whether a player will catch it – then I believe it’s time to find a better way to spend the afternoon.
Tradition or disaster?
The sudden proliferation of gruesome images of adorable seal pups, the fierce debates between the government and animal rights groups, and the manipulative rhetoric used on both sides are some of the events that can be expected around the time of Canada’s annual commercial seal hunt.
STANDing tall against genocide
Since 2003, a reported 400,000 murders have taken place in Darfur, Sudan, at the hands of the state-sponsored militia, the Janjaweed, and their campaign of ethnic cleansing. While the main violence has ended – there are few villages left to burn – the atrocity has displaced over 2.
McGill clubs have something for everyone
Red Thunder Calling all fans of McGill athletics: Red Thunder McGill allows you to attend varsity games for free. The catch? None, if you’re a true fan. After paying a $25 fee, members get a Red Thunder Fan Pack containing a T-shirt, rally towel and bandana, and organized bus trips to the games.
POP RHETORIC: Tyra’s people
If I could do a case study on some of the alarming hypocrisy that characterizes media today, I would centre it on supermodel-turned-media mogul Tyra Banks. She truly embodies the modern rule of television: anyone willing to forego dignity, self-awareness, and all ironic detachments can potentially earn about $30 million a year.
Culinary alchemy for incompetents
After a gruelling day on campus, coming home to a kitchen filled with random food items that don’t seem to relate to one another can be incredibly infuriating. In this situation, many revert to take-out or perhaps to pasta for the fifth night in a row. But even the barest of fridges or pantries can contain the basics for just about any meal.
Suicide: it’s everybody’s problem
On November 18, a revision to the Criminal Code that makes it illegal to “counsel a person to commit suicide” or aid or abet them in doing so, regardless of whether they are successful, was passed unanimously in the House of Commons. The revision, which was proposed by Kitchener-Conestoga Member of Parliament Harold Albrecht, was a response to the March 2008 suicide of Nadia Kajouji, a first-year student at Carleton University who drowned herself in the Rideau River.
Eco-friendly fashion alternatives
The green movement has reached makeup, shampoo, and even kitty litter, and at last, eco-aware designers and companies have expanded into the world of fashion. But rather than the billowy hemp clothing last seen on tree-hugging hippies, the new designs are chic and urban – and also happen to be made from sustainable materials.
Going green
Conserve water. Leaving the tap running while brushing your teeth uses about five gallons of water, while every toilet flush uses about six and a half. Don’t leave the water running when brushing your teeth, shaving, or washing dishes, and store water in the refrigerator rather than letting the tap run every time you want a cool drink.